Duchess Say What?

Duchess Says, whose first full-length album I chose as one of my favourite releases from 2008, have put out an awesome video of their song Tenen Non Neue for Mange Ta Ville, a web-based television show about arts and culture in Montreal (Mange Ta Ville means “eat your city” - it sounds snappier in French. Really). They set up their instruments at the St. Michel flea market in east-end Montreal and quite likely freaked out (or delighted) any number of shoppers out for antique lamps, ashtrays with pictures of the Olympic Stadium, and steamees.

In true post-Velvet-Underground rock ‘n’ roll style, the video starts with a good minute or so of fuzzy electronic whine. But hold steady, it’s worth it when you get to A-Claude’s robot-gone-berserk singing and dance moves. I’m not sure what it is about female-fronted Quebecois punk bands who sing in made-up languages that sound like a stew of English, French, German and what-all (see, for instance, Les Georges Leningrad and the obscure and legendary La Gerantole) - is it a kind of Esperanto meant to bridge the language gap? Possession by demons? - but I like it. A lot. I hope you will too.